In her letter to the editor, Rita Kasky writes: "The student movement is crossing the country, educating our citizens (as more and more school shooting amass) and pleading for cooperation from all of us."
Thousands of students nationwide are protesting the epidemic of school shootings. Gun violence in schools and the slaughter of school children has become a weekly affair. So far in 2018 there have been 20 school shootings, an average of 1.25 per week.
One-fourth of the Simon’s Rock student body joined the national student protest for increased gun control. “It’s really inspiring to see these students get involved in what is happening in the world and in their community,” said Selectman Ed Abrahams, who attended the protest. “Our country and our community need this energy, this involvement."
“By next Friday, every school kid in America will have experienced at least three events where they have no doubt wondered how long they must endure the tolerance for guns that has torn apart the fabric of this country and endangered their lives.”
-- Documentary filmmaker Bobby Houston, on the screening of his film 'The Children's March'
Ben Hillman recorded this video of the March 24 March for our Lives in New York City, one of hundreds of such marches nationwide prompted by the February 14 slaughter of 17 high school students at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida. During the marches hundreds of thousands expressed their outrage at the prevalence of guns, assault weapons, gun violence, and the cowardice of Congress in not enacting gun control measures to keep our children safe.
RISE joins a growing wave of students and educators bringing social movement action into the classroom and education into social movement action throughout the country.
“I feel safe because our community isn’t a place where this could happen. Then again, many communities feel that way. And then it happens.” -- Taylor Slonaker, MMRHS junior
"I think the best way to ensure safety is around building relationships and making sure kids are known and connected to multiple adults.” --Peter Dillon, Berkshire Hille Regional School District superintendent
Following the latest school shooting atrocity in Parkland, Florida, another Children’s Crusade is rising: a largely youth-bred movement meant to persuade legislators to take some meaningful action to stem the needless deaths of our country’s children in schools.
It didn’t take long for me to realize that the young adults of Parkland were cutting through the layers of despair I had built up all these years. They were telling their truth with passion and conviction.
